Great view of the Kingfisher early Tuesday morning. It was accidentally disturbed by some dog walkers and the kingfisher flew up onto a branch overhanging the Winterbourne Stream. It then flew down into vegetation out of site. A couple of minutes later it flew fast and low above the water back up the Winterbourne Stream [...]
As promised in my last post, ‘Wildlife Afternoon on the Reserve’ this post focuses on the amazing water stick insect that we found last Sunday. The Water Stick Insect looks remarkably like its terrestrial namesake but they are not closely related. In fact that are closely related to another fascinating pond inhabitant the water scorpion. [...]
We had a fascinating wildlife afternoon at the Linklater last Sunday. Despite the changeable weather, from hot sun to heavy showers, there was still plenty to see and share with the Bank Holiday Sunday visitors. Adjacent to the reserve on the banks of the River Ouse a patient heron hunted for small fish, standing patiently [...]
Paul has now repaired and re-sited the underwater cam in the heart of reeds. Installing the camera disturbs a lot of sediments making the water cloudy. The water is beginning to settle and today we were able to see some of the fish swimming past the camera. The large silvery coloured fish are rudd. We also [...]
The heavy rain yesterday evening and duri9ng the night left a few muddy puddles around the reserve. To us it was an inconvenience, wet feet if we did not have boots on. With the school that visited today we had to keep taking our footwear off before we went into the Linklater Pavilion because we [...]
We have been seeing some great views of waterfowl through the ditch cam and Winterbourne stream cam. There are 3 main species of water fowl that we regularly seen on the nature reserve. These are the moorhen, coot and mallard. Coots and moorhen are not ducks but belong to a group of birds known called Rails. [...]
We are seeing some great views of fish through the underwater cams. The stripy fish are 3 spine sticklebacks and they have been coming right up closed to underwater cam in the pond and also the Heart of Reeds. We have also been seeing a fish called rudd in the Heart of Reeds. These are [...]
Many animals awaken from hibernation in March and so as we start April many of the animals are out and about. Newts, which have hibernated away from the ponds and ditches, will now be active. They will slowly make their way back to water, but its slow progress. On land newts look like lizards, but their movements are [...]
We have been seeing some exciting behaviour through ditch cam the last few days. The moorhen that live in the ditches are preparing to nest. Before this happens the males tend to squabble and chase each other around in the hope of impressing the females. You can see this in the school video library clips [...]
Even thought we have had very few days of ice and snow, many of the plants have still prepared them selves for winter. To survive the harsh conditions of winter, many of the plants on the nature reserve have died back to the ground or shed all their leaves and become dormant (resting). People are [...]
